Donald Trump Should Stand Up For Americans By Giving NATO To The Europeans

Doug Bandow
, ContributorI write about international politics, economics, and development.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

The election had barely been called for Donald Trump when he came under pressure to back away from his most important promises. For instance, he questioned U.S. subsidies for the defense of prosperous, populous Europe and criticized NATO as “obsolete.” But after President Barack Obama met with Trump, the former assured Europeans of the president-elect’s “commitment to NATO and the transatlantic alliance.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently spoke to Trump, claiming that the latter agreed to the alliance’s continuing value.

President–elect Donald Trump has yet to comment. But he had it right during the campaign.

NATO is one of Washington’s most expensive yet beloved sacred cows. On his recent trip to Europe President Obama argued that such alliances as NATO “aren’t just good for Europe, they’re good for the United States and they’re vital for the world.” Exactly how that is so he didn’t bother to detail.

In fact, there may be no better example of how bureaucracies develop their own interests than NATO. We are approaching the transatlantic alliance’s 70th anniversary. It was created in a radically different world, one in which the Soviet Union had emerged as Europe’s strongest state after swallowing Eastern and Central European nations as it rolled back Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht.

Europe had been ravaged by war. Germany, which in recent decades possessed the continent’s most powerful military, was in ruins. Great Britain was triumphant but only Winston Churchill’s outsize personality created the pretense that it remained a great power. Joseph Stalin's aggressive intentions were uncertain, so an American-created and -dominated alliance seemed to offer geopolitical insurance.

There were other seeming benefits as well. Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, the alliance’s first secretary general, famously opined that NATO was to keep the Americans in, Soviets out, and Germans down. In the early years, at least, the alliance helped accomplish all three. NATO’s impact was not solely military. By providing a multi-national organization through which West Germany could rearm, the transatlantic pact helped rehabilitate the nation that was destined to again possess Europe’s greatest economic strength.

However, even as Dwight Eisenhower served as NATO commander and then U.S. president, he warned against providing Europe with a permanent garrison. He feared turning independent nations into helpless dependents, which is precisely what happened. Even after Europe recovered from the war alliance members consistently lagged in military outlays. They routinely violated their promises to increase spending despite the sometimes frigid winds blowing from the east during the Cold War.